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Posted July 26, 2010 12:18 am - Updated July 26, 2010 08:05 am

12th District runoff: Smith accuses McKinney of coordination with a PAC

Smith accuses fellow Republican McKinney of coordination with a PAC

ATLANTA - Carl Smith faced Raymond McKinney's empty lectern Sunday evening during a statewide televised debate of the Republicans in the runoff for the nomination to the 12th congressional district. But the mud flew after the program.

Smith accused McKinney of violating federal election law by coordinating with a political-action committee based in California regarding an attack mailer delivered across the district the weekend before Tuesday's primary.

The two Republicans came in first and second place Tuesday, landing in the Aug. 10 runoff for the chance to face Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., in November.

McKinney's spokesman said Friday that the candidate had a schedule conflict that didn't allow a 10-hour roundtrip to the Atlanta studios of Georgia Public Broadcasting where the Atlanta Press Club hosts its forums.

Smith, though, had the 20-minute segment to himself to respond to questions from a panel of reporters and even to "question" the absent McKinney. He asked McKinney's empty lectern about a boast at the beginning of the campaign that he had $100,000 in contributions which turned out to be money McKinney poured into the kitty from his personal coffers.

"I just want to ask Mr. McKinney why he felt he couldn't trust the voters with that information," Smith said, adding that it cast a shadow of mistrust.

But it was after the forum that he distributed documents accusing improper coordination between McKinney's campaign and the One Nation PAC. The documents note that McKinney supporter Ali A. Akbar served on the One Nation board and that the pac and the campaign used the same mailing company.

The documents list Akbar as McKinney's campaign manager, but Akbar said the campaign operates without one and that he is just a volunteer. He also said he resigned from the honorary board position in April and never had any say in the pac's activities.

"Neither the McKinney campaign nor I had any coordination with the One Nation PAC," Akbar said when reached by phone. "I'm not paid by the McKinney campaign. ... I'm helping Ray because he's a friend."

Also in the papers is what appears to be a copy of an e-mail from Akbar from before the One Nation mailer's delivery to GOP households across the district. In the e-mail, Akbar mentions One Nation as one of several organizations that would be helpful to McKinney.

Smith notes that the One Nation mailer attacked him for the same things McKinney has blasted him for, such as having supported Democrats in past elections, being fired from his jobs as firefighter and allegedly breaking a federal law prohibiting federally funded government officials from running for partisan political positions. The similarity, Smith said, is more evidence of coordination, but other candidates in the primary raised most of the same issues.

"Somebody needs to find out if they've been violating election laws," Smith said of McKinney.

During the Press Club debate, Smith said he would model himself in Congress after Reps. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., and Paul Ryan, R-Wis. He supported limiting members of the House to 12 years in office, favored transferring responsibility for enforcing environmental laws from the federal government to individual states, and he vowed to crack down on illegal immigration despite the farmers in the district who rely on migrant labor.

He closed with a dig at the two prior Republican attempts to unseat Barrow, including McKinney's 2008 quest.

"As the Georgia Republican Party we have a choice," Smith said. "We can continue politics as usual and the same-old, same-old and when we select a nominee, or we can close the book on '06 and '08 and put in a fresh face who will fight for conservative principles."

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP BUTLER, Okinawa, Japan — Marine Corps Captain James E. Frederick, who ejected from a Marine F/A-18 on Dec. 7, was pronounced dead after his body was found during search and rescue operations.